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What do people want from restaurant furniture?

Restaurant furniture is of course an integral part of the dining experience - but does anyone know exactly what diners expect of their chosen eatery's restaurant furniture?

The answer to that question just became more firmly 'yes', as research in the Rochester Institute of Technology journal RIThink reveals people's preferences - including the restaurant furniture preferences of those responsible for actually buying the tables and chairs.

First of all, size matters, in lots of different ways, and average or medium sizes are understandably popular - people prefer medium-sized restaurants with between 20 and 50 tables (54% of respondents took this option), and medium spacing between individual tables (63%).

Warm colours are popular, but do not quite form a majority vote, with 42% of respondents listed this as their preference, and very nearly half (49%) prefer a combination of colours over one single colour scheme.

Interestingly, most of the survey's participants (59%) said they like their restaurant furniture to be higher from the ground, with the same proportion preferring soft materials for their seat covers; however, this by no means rules out hard chairs either.

More than three quarters (76%) said wood is their favourite material for hard furniture, while for soft furnishings 46% said cotton and 32% opted for leather, showing broad and fairly equal support for all of the main different options.

And the idea of eating out as a formal experience may be falling by the wayside too, as 66% of the survey's participants said they prefer a casual dining environment.

Put all of this together and there are some definite take-home messages - such as the preference for casual dining, taller chairs and tables and multi-coloured interiors.

But the less distinct outcomes of the survey, such as the mixed messages on furnishing types, should come as reassurance rather than a cause of additional doubt.

It is clear that, whether you choose hard chairs or soft sofas, leather, cotton or solid wood, you're likely to please more or less the same proportion of your customers, and unlikely to put off the rest, allowing you to make your decisions based on the best fit for your budget, space and design scheme.